>> osgood: good morning. i'm charles osgood and this is sunday morning. children returning to class as they do each fall reminds many of us of our own school days. the long hours we used to spend learning things like proper penmanship. remember that? whatever happened to that anyway? many of us can't even read our own handwriting anymore. are we signing off on penmanship? tracy smith will be looking into that in our sunday morning cover story. ♪ i'm going to sit right down and write myself a letter ♪ >> reporter: how is your handwriting? chances are it's not as good as theirs.

does our legibility get better as we get older? >> no. what happens is you tend to peak around fourth grade. >> reporter: a primer on penmanship and whether it matters anymore later on sunday morning. >> osgood: if a just-released blues album happens to be rockin' the house, the man you have to thank is dr. house or rather hugh laurie who plays dr. house in the popular tv series. he's a man of many talents and this morning our martha teichner will be paying him a house call. >> reporter: how did hugh laurie, british comedian, turn into a cranky american tv doctor? >> excellent diagnosis. >> the opportunity to reinvent myself the way i have, i mean, this is an incredible thing. it's only really given to career criminals who actually go to rio and have plastic surgery. >> reporter: instead he went to new orleans to sing the blues ♪ i went down...

> this sunday morning hugh laurie's latest transformation. >> osgood: in a world of rapid change susan lucci has been a reliable constant. the tv soap opera actress has survived countless crises on the screen while saving ultimate vindication at the emmys. now mo rocca tells us this story star of the soaps is facing her biggest challenge yet. >> by the way, chet is coming over later. >> reporter: susan lucci reported for work on january 5, 1970, and never left. >> i want to be special and i'm going to be. >> reporter: she's been playing the indomitable erica kane for more than 41 years. >> i have to tell you like you're 23. i was also picturing myself having a really long run. >> reporter: susan lucci in the role of a lifetime. >> later on sunday morning. >> osgood: some of the most

important team players in all of baseball never actually take the field. bill geist this morning will have a few cases in point. >> reporter: we always hear about professional baseball players making millions of dollars and living in mansions. but not here. not in the minor leagues. hudson valley renegades of wap falls, new york, like all minor leaguers are paid peanuts and live with local families. sons of summer later on sunday morning. >> osgood: norah o'donnell asks indiana governor mitch daniels why he decided not to run for president. david edelstein reviews the new brad pit film money ball. steve hartman shows us photos that win second chances for homeless dogs and more. first the headlines for this sunday morning the 18th of september, 2011. the white house official said president obama's proposal for deficit reduction which he announces tomorrow will

include a new base tax rate for wealthy americans. the so-called buffet rule is aimd at ensuring that millionaires pay at least the same percentage as middle income tax payors. house speaker john boehner says he will oppose any tax increases to reduce the deficit. twos those two americans convicted of spying remain in an iranian jail this morning. lawyers for josh fatal and shane bauer said their million dollar bail needs to be approved by two judges and one is on vacation until tuesday. tomorrow president ahmadinejad travels to new york to speak at the u.n. general assembly. the death toll has risen to nine including the pilot in friday's crash of a vintage plane of an air race in reno. the world war ii era p-51 mustang crashed into a crowd of spectators on the tarmac. more than 50 people were taken to hospitals there are calls to end the annual nevada event which over the years has taken

the lives of more than 20 pilots. at another air show, this one in west virginia, the vintage t-28 aircraft crashed yesterday killing the pilot. no reports of injuries among the spectators there. kara kennedy, the eldest daughter of the late ted kennedy of massachusetts died yesterday in washington. she was 51. kara kennedy died while at a washington area health club. she had been treated for lung cancer eight years ago. and eleanor mondale, daughter of the former vice president malter mondale, died yesterday in minnesota. she was minneapolis broadcaster who had been treated for brain cancer. she too was 51. and former senator charles percy of illinois has died at age 91. percy of... percy served in the senate. his daughter sharon is married to senator jay rockefeller of west virginia. the weather is something for everyone today. cool and crisp in the east.

stormy over the plains and warm out west. this week nearly everyone can expect rain. we'll all mark the summer's official end on friday. next,. >> that is amazing. >> osgood: handwriting. >> can you erase it and try again. >> osgood: is handwriting being written off? >> osgood: is handwriting being written off? later, "all my

>> osgood: as a new school year gets underway here's a question: do all the new fangled electronic devices at our finger tips mean we're signing off on the art of penmanship? the school kids of the future still practice writing letters by hand. questions that prompted our cover story reported now by tracy smith. >> so, boys and girls, i'm going to show you how you make these letters. watch how i do this. down, up and over. see that? ♪ i'm going to sit right down and write myself a letter ♪ >> reporter: if it's been a while since you felt the excitement. >> that is amazing. >> reporter: or the pain. >> can you erase it and try again. >> reporter: of putting pen to paper. >> what did you write? >> reporter: spend a few moments with this teacher's kindergarten class in upper arlington, ohio. >> you can see so much meaning

and passion in their penmanship. you know, even if it's, you know, all in capitals and a mix. it makes you smile. >> reporter: handwriting is still an essential skill for kids, but in the world beyond school, the one filled with computers and cell phones and you name it, we're losing our grip on pen machineship. it's not that we're not writing. every day we send 294 billion emails. but for adulls the tactile personal art of handwriting-- you're looking at mine-- is pretty much reduced to shopping lists and credit card signatures. >> well, we don't use it as much. but that's an old story. we haven't used handwriting the way we used to use handwriting for well over 100 years. >> reporter:. this is from the 1880s. >> reporter: tamara thornton is a history professor at the state university of new york at buffalo and the author of a history of handwriting in america.

what was handwriting of the pilgrims like? >> well, first you have to recognize that not everybody could write. and then even more strangely there were people who could read but not write. the two skills were taught separately and understood to have separate purposes. >> reporter: in the 1700 and 1800s if your handwriting was good enough you could actually make it a career. >> well, there were professional penmen, professional writing masters who would produce penmanship tour de forces as a kind of calling card. this is what i can do. >> reporter: flat rogers spencer was the first person penman to create a national model for handwriting, it was a fancy one. >> spencerian was very fussy and time consuming. you had to get the shading just right. it was slow. >> reporter: we know

spencerian today as the script used in the coca-cola logo, but that's about all. ♪ because the arrival of the typewriter in the late 19th century presented enormous competition for handwriting. a new man took up the challenge, a.n.palmer. >> he really was the penmanship emperor of the 20th century. >> reporter: palmer said speed it up. >> what palmer was thinking and to some extent saying is we have to have a modern 20th century script for modern 20th century business conditions. fast. efficient. that way we can keep up with the typewriter. it's big on drill work. >> reporter: regimen tags that palmer believed would do more than just create good handwriting. it could make model citizens. >> penmanship could reform delinquents, it could

assimilate immigrants. penmanship could do just about everything except cure acne. >> reporter: moreover handwriting was seen not just as a product of good habits but of your character itself. and that gave rise to handwriting analysis, graphology. >> it was all the rage particularly in the early 1900s. >> reporter: there were even graphology columns in magazines to which readers could submit their handwriting. >> what handwriting reveals. >> reporter: and find out their true self. >> what i see in your handwriting, i see a great deal of conscientious and sincerity. i can see considerable self-satisfaction. get this. before the 1920s students weren't taught to write in print. they only learned curveive. so abraham lincoln never printed. >> he would not have printed. >> reporter: and learning script took a lot of time. >> and we recommended back then and most teachers did

about 30 to 45 minutes. >> reporter: catherine wright is the one of the largest handwriting instruction companies. >> let's go ahead and practice those. we're going to do it the same way. >> reporter: she said they've had to adapt to all the subjects crammed into a student's schedule. >> we've simplified it to about 15 minutes of direct instruction. >> reporter: today children start with print and then move on to curseive. >> the script we teach kids today is simple and efficient. americans are all about efficiency. >> reporter: steve graham is a literacy expert at vanderbilt university. graham says just as computer are a technology, so are pencils and paper. are pen and pencils still the most practical technology we have? >> they're clearly the simplest. they're the cheapest. in many ways the most portable. are they the most effective? that's a different question. if you take a look at having kids write on word processors over a period of time versus

writing by hand, kids who write on word processor over time have better quality writing. >> reporter: so if kids just by-passed handwriting altogether and started on keyboards, would they suffer? >> probably not. >> reporter: others disagree with graham citing studies that show for kids handwriting is more effective than typing for stimulating memory and language skills. with computers still scarce in some classrooms and keyboards a poor fit for kids' hands, all agree penmanship counts. >> it does matter. people form judgments about the credibility of your ideas baseded upon your handwriting. >> reporter: so a kid with good handwriting could get better grades? >> yes, and a kid with poor handwriting gets lower grades on writing assignments. >> reporter: does our legibility get better as we get older? >> no. what happens is you tend to peak around fourth grade. >> reporter: fourth grade? >> so most handwriting

instruction stops at about fourth grade. >> reporter: some of us are reminded of that fourth grade peak the hard way. >> penmanship was part of the problem in the handwritten note from gordon brown. >> reporter: when former british prime minister gordon brown wrote a letter of condolence to the mother of a soldier killed in afghanistan, his sloppy hand and spelling errors so incensed her she released the letter to the press causing a penmanship scandal. and most of us don't give our own handwriting glowing reviews. a sunday morning poll finds that while eight out of ten of us write at least some of the time, only 18% call their handwriting excellent. >> your handwriting is good enough. it doesn't have to be something from a medieval monastery. >> reporter: noted chrig grafer margaret shepherd has written two books to pen handwritten notes.

>> the worst handwriting is still way ahead of the best, trickyiest, cuteest little email. >> reporter: after all, so much of our national history has been written by hand, and our personal history too. >> whenever i come across a letter of my mother's, it's like i hear her voice. she's in the room with me. and for communications between you and someone you really value, a handwritten letter is just awesome. ♪ i'm going to sit right down and write myself a letter ♪ >> reporter: why does handwriting even matter? >> because you can't just have a computer everywhere you go. if it's out of batteries or it crashes, you can still pick up a pencil and paper. >> reporter: even these fourth graders still struggling with how to form those curse i have been capitals seem to get that handwriting has a place at

least somewhere. >> sometime if you're stranded on an island or something, then you'll know how to write. ♪ i'm going to sit right down and write myself a letter ♪ > on a desert island, a job application or for the history books, it just may be too soon to sign off on penmanship. >> there she blows. >> osgood: just ahead, old faithful. you can count on it. without hot sauce.'t eat egs she has kind of funny looking toes. she's always touching my hair. and she does this dancing finger thing. [ male announcer ] with advanced technology from ge, now doctors can diagnose diseases like breast cancer on a cellular level. so that women, like kristy's mom, can get personalized treatment that's as unique as she is. [ kristy ] she's definitely not like other moms. yeah, my mom is pretty weird.

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call right now. >> osgood: and now a page from our sunday morning almanac. september 18, 1870, 141 years ago today. the perfect day for blowing off steam. for that was the day an expedition led by henry d.washburn encountered a remarkable geyser in the yellowstone region of wyoming. it was a perfect geyser, remembered another traveler. it spouted at regular intervals nine times during our stay. we gave it the name of old faithful. within two years yellowstone became america's first national park. and old faithful quickly became america's best known geyser.

>> there she blows. >> osgood: with eruptions averaging 130 feet in height, hold faithful isn't the biggest geyser in yellowstone, only the most predictable. >> there it is. >> reporter: depending on the length of each eruption, the time of the next can be forecast nearly to the minute. the longer the eruption, the longer the wait for the next one. tourists come to yellowstone from all over the world to patiently wait. cameras at the ready, trying perhaps to match the photographs the great ansel adams took of old faithful some 70 years ago. >> oh, that's pretty good. >> osgood: back in 2009 president obama and his family paid a visit joining a long line of pilgrims to express their awe over the years. >> i had a cabin less than 300 yards from old faithful. in full view. wow! what a deal. you know what i mean?

>> osgood: seismic activity is gradually lengthening the wait between old faithful'sous bursts for as long as two hours but the crowds still seem to think it's time well spent. ahead, the doctor is in. dr. house, that is. >> what? >> this portion of sunday morning is sponsored by toyota. me. i don't know if i could say the same for my parents. it's the worst thing that's ever happened to them. i'm just pretty much killing it out here. they say they're happy. i mean, what do you think they do every day without me there? ♪ are they eating? they must really miss me. i'm their only child, except for my sister. [ male announcer ] venza from toyota.

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and here again is charles osgood. >> rose: hugh laurie is about to be rockin' the house for another season of the medical series "house." he's up for best dramatic actor honors. more surprisingly he has just released an album of music. this morning hugh laurie talks with our martha teichner for the record. ♪ >> i heard a song on the radio. my brother was driving in the car. i remember it very clearly. i don't remember the song unfortunately but i remember the moment. hairs on the back of my neck going up. oh, look, there's a sign that shows how high i was. ♪ i went down to saint james... ♪

♪ i saw my baby there >> every human emotion is is in this music for me. it makes me happy. it makes me sad. it makes me excited. it soothes me. >> reporter: in the notes of his just released album of new orleans style blues hugh laurie admits openly trespassing on the music and myths of the american south. trespassing because he's quite english and best known as the star of the fox drama "house." not as a professional musician. there are probably people who would accuse you of... this is a famous tv star's vanity project. >> i know how this might look. i know all the accusations that might be made. but to hell with it. this is what i love. this is who i am.

this is me declaring myself. >> reporter: let loose. an actual record store in los angeles. laurie sounds like a cross between an infatuated lover and a geek. there's a dr. john cd right there. >> oh, my god. >> reporter: he was connected with your project. >> he was. >> reporter: dr. john is one of several new orleans legends who performed with laurie on the album. >> we recorded this one. he was only there a couple of hours. but i went out into the parking lot. i got into my car. i went. i sat at the wheel of my car and i went. it was such an overwhelming moment. >> reporter: you see muddy waters. you see this whole array of jazz people. what does that represent to you? >> just a great ocean of pleasure.

(announcement over the inter-come) >> i'll be there in a second. >> reporter: when an opportunity to be funny arises, hugh laurie can't help himself. >> what i always say is, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, shoot it. >> reporter: in england he and actor/writer steven fry made their names as a comedy duo. >> are you completely stupid? >> yes. >> reporter: laurie's specialty? silly, foppish or it achris toe karats. >> the sort of clowning that i tended towards was a defense against something. to this day, i haven't really worked out what. but it was a way of disarming one's enemies or something by making them laugh.

♪ when somebody loves you >> reporter: even as a comedian, laurie slipped music into his act. although as a child growing up in oxford, england, his passion for music was nearly extinguished by two excrutiating months of piano lessons with mrs. hare. >> i hated it. it was all about posture and sitting like this. i remember we worked our way through this awful book of french lullabys. the only song i wanted to play in the whole book was swanie river. the closest thing to a blues song in the whole book. i remember she turned the page and said, "swanie river, negro spiritual. slightly syncopatei. we won't need that." >> reporter: it's no coincidence that swanie river is on the album. it's laurie's revenge.

you got even with your piano teacher. >> i did. a little bit. >> reporter: something house might do. >> what ginormous crack pipe have you people been sucking on? >> reporter: laurie still has no idea how he of all people happened to be askd to audition for the role of the brilliant but perverse dr. gregory house who is modeled on sherlock holmes. >> there's so much luck. the amount of luck is actually terrifying. >> reporter: having said that, i don't think that there's anybody who sees house who doesn't see you as the embodiment of house in a way that just seems so inevitable. >> well, gosh, i mean, that's very kind. are you one of those people? or do people just say that? that's very, very.... >> reporter: i'm one of the people. >> thank you. >> statistically if he didn't

have these symptoms he'd be like most his age. dead for a couple years. >> do the test. i'm sick. >> you have a bad case of natural causes. >> reporter: its show is starting its 8th season. he's the highest paid actor in a drama series. he makes $700,000 an episode according to tv guide. the limp and the american accent are still hard, he says. living in l.a., not so hard. >> and the sort of popular rather snobbish english view is that, oh, los angeles is so it's a city of glitter and vanity. you know, you're hated there. any decent person should hate it there. that's the feeling. i think, no, dam it. i'm going to love it. >> reporter: and you do. >> and i do. >> reporter: how do you think that house and living in the united states have changed you? >> have changed me? that's a tricky one.

i didn't see that one coming. >> reporter: i can be tricky. >> yes, you can. you can. i hope i've got gotten better at what i do. i hope i have become less neurotic. i think i probably was neurotic and i'm less so now. >> reporter: before house, would you have dared to do the album? >> no. ♪ >> i didn't have the confidence. i think probably house has given me a confidence as a performer that i didn't have before. it took me a long time to find. >> reporter: so that now lost in the blues, hugh laurie is a man at home. ♪

>> there are rich teams and there are poor teams. >> osgood: next, is money ball on the money? >> then there's 50 feet of crap. then there's us.

>> osgood: a new movie about baseball is about to take the feel. our critic david edelstein has already chosen its mvp. >> reporter: in money ball brad pitt is shockingly good. maybe i am the only person shocked. he did have a couple of oscar nominations. but ever since he starred in robert redford's a river run through it, i always thought of him as redford's mini-me with the same pouchy cheeks and quizzical half open mouth. >> i'm not saying you're not mentally ill. for all i know, you're crazy as a loon. >> reporter: to prove he wasn't just a pretty boy he overacted like mad in 12 monkeys. >> immortality. take it. it's yours. >> reporter: in troy he pumped himself up and showed off arms like tree trunks and tried to look god-like. >> i couldn't sleep. >> reporter: he got great

reviews in the curious case of benjamin button but there i thought he underacted. staring ahead with moist eyes, letting his make-up do the heavy lifting. but actors do grow. >> come on. hit me. come on. >> reporter: pitt was strikingly effective as a hard- ass patriarch in the spiritual epic the tree of life. and in money ball, he has soul. >> if we win, this team will change the game. >> reporter: he plays a real guy, billy bean, the general manager of the oakland athletics and a broken man when the as almost make the world series but can't compete against teams like yankees with four times the players' salary budget. >> i need more money. >> we're not new york. find players. >> with the money that we do have. >> reporter: that's when he meets peter brand played by jonah hill. >> first job in baseball? >> my first job anywhere. >> reporter: with his

economics degree from yale and with the con six that teams value and pay big money for wrong things. that the most important stat is the on-base percentage meaning players who might not hit them out but get on. if this sounds like inside baseball, it literally is. but money ball,ed on a marvelous book by michael lewis transcends inside baseball. on one level, it's a rousing sports underdog story. on another, a movie about thinking outside the batter's box. >> you guys are talking the same old nonsense like we're looking for fabio. we have to think this through. >> who is fabio? >> it's the bad news bears for nba. >> the movie is too long but it's full of cynical talk and it's very enjoyable especially when the odd couple of pitt and hill, who is also terrific, hustles and works the phones. >> okay. thank you very much. we'll call you back. thank you. come on!

>> reporter: pitt still channels redford but he's mastered that pause and stair stance to show the wheels turning in his head. he doesn't play against his movie star handsomeness. his billy bean is a man who knows he's handsome and also knows it's not enough. it's the first time pitt has been more than enough. >> osgood: hold your horses. a carrousel ride is next. opening a restaurant is utterly terrifying. we lost well over half of our funding when everything took a big dip. i don't think anyone would open up a restaurant if they knew what that moment is like. ♪ day 1, everything happened at once. ♪ i don't know how long that day was.

we went home and let it sink in what we had just done. [ laughs ] ♪ word of mouth is everything, and word of mouth today is online. it all goes back to the mom and pop business and building something from the heart, founded within a family. when i found out i was pregnant, daniel was working on our second location. everyone will find out soon enough i think that something's happening. ♪ ♪

♪ >> osgood: it happened this week. a testament to the power of circular reasoning. >> this is a magical city. this is a magical carousel. and it is a magical gift that has been made. >> reporter: with new york's mayor michael bloomberg and other dignitaries on hand, a restored carousel started spinning near the brooklyn bridge on thursday evening, proof positive that what goes around comes around. the carousel is a gift from artist jane wolentes, a merry go round enthusiast from way back. she told our michelle miller in 2008. >> i grew up in new jersey. i grew up with carousels. i love them. >> osgood: so much so that when she heard of a damaged carousel going up for auction in 1984, she and her husband david snapped it up.

>> reporter: how much did you pay for it? >> $385,000. >> osgood: for the next 22 years jane and her small staff painstakingly restored the carousel to its original splendor spending $15 million of her own money. it was then kept in an empty warehouse until a permanent home was found. >> reporter: where exactly do you want it placed? >> osgood: jane and her husband had long dreamed of putting the carousel in the new brooklyn park but winning the pool turned out to be a merry go round itself as jane recalled this past week. >> i might have seemed confident at that time. but i really wasn't. there was a long road ahead. >> osgood: a road that ended thursday evening at the carousel's new home. designed by a prize-winning

architect john now vel. >> it's the perfect place for it. i'm glad we persevered. i hope that kids from all over the world have the chance to come and enjoy it. >> osgood: and enjoy it, they already are. >> they really did not want you to run for president. >> that appeared to be the consensus. >> reporter: you seem a little emotional about that. >> questions for

>> osgood: a lot of republicans wanted indiana's popular governor mitch daniels to run for president but he decided not to. daniels sat down with our cbs news chief white house correspondent norah o'donnell for some questions and answers. ( cheers and applause ) >> reporter: well, folks, here we go again.

>> ladies and gentlemen, the republican candidates for president of the united states. >> reporter: with the 2012 presidential election just 14 months away.... >> i simply want to get america working again. >> reporter: the republican challengers. >> this is just flat-out wrong. >> reporter: they're off and running. >> america's economy is in crisis. >> reporter: with unemployment above 9% and the economy reeling. >> our debt has gone up nearly triple. >> reporter: they're lining up for a shot at the white house which they believe is up for grabs. but as the candidates scuffle for attention, there's one would-be contender who turned heads and made headlines by choosing not to run. >> mitch daniels. >> reporter: indiana's popular governor mitch daniels. you weren't teasing people that you were going to run for president, were you? >> honestly, no. no, i wasn't. i irritated a lot more people because i didn't go for it.

but i did look at it seriously eventually. >> reporter: and why not? daniels is a rising star, a former advisor to president reagan and george w. bush's director of the office of management and budget. >> i say let her rip. >> reporter: he was elected governor of indiana in 2004 and turned around a struggling economy. >> the state was broke when we got here. we fixed that in a great big way. we shaped our economy here to be by all accounts one of the most attractive to investment and growth and opportunity in the country. we built roads at record rates and lowered property taxs to the lowest in the country. we made government work well. >> reporter: and he did it by slashing government spending and balancing the budget. >> one thing we've i think demonstrated here in indiana where we have fewer state employees than the state did in 1976. you would be how much government you'll never miss. >> reporter: daniels seemed the perfect presidential candidate for these deficit-

obsess times. but when party leaders came calling, his response was stunning. >> i remember saying then verbally, it's this simple. i love my country. i love my family more. >> reporter: it was a remarkable concession for an ambitious public servant. daniels and his wife cheri have four daughters. when they sat down to discuss a presidential run, as the governor puts it the women's caucus won. what were your concerns, cheri? >> i think our family was really concerned about the lack of privacy and that it's not just for four years or eight years but for the rest of your life, you know, mitch has given 12 years to public service and, you know, now it was our turn to get him back. >> i said to somebody, i said there's one sentence for which a father has nofully which is, daddy, please don't.

>> reporter: they really did not want you to run for president? >> that appeared to be the consensus, yes. >> reporter: you seem a little emotional about that. do you feel caught between being a father and a husband and pursuing something like a higher office where you feel like you could really make a difference? >> no, i mean, i'm not complaining about a thing. i'm the luckiest guy i know of. you know, you can't have everything in life. sometimes you have to choose. >> reporter: but political insiders whispered there was another reason. daniels wasn't running, they said, because he and his wife would face difficult questions about an intensely private episode in their marriage. your marriage has been interesting. most people have interesting marriages. what happened? >> well, what happened was a happy ending. i always say if you love happy endings, you'll love our story. >> reporter: their story is that after 15 years of

marriage and four daughters, they divorced in 1993. cheri moved out briefly remarried, divorced her second husband and then remarried daniels in 1997. cheri, you know people said when you guys got divorced the suggestion out there was that you had abandoned your four girls. was that hurtful when people wrote that. >> it was because it wasn't true. i didn't move to california. i lived within a quarter of a mile of the house. that simply didn't happen. >> reporter: they insist there are no dark secrets preventing him from running. is it a middle-age thing? >> no, i had my first one when i was 21. i owned a bunch of them. >> reporter: either way daniels isn't a candidate but that doesn't mean he's going quietly. not running, he says, has its advantages.

among them he's free to speak his mind about our nation's problems. what do you think about governor perry calling social security a ponzi scheme? >> it a monsterous lie. it is a ponzi scheme. >> as far as it goes he's not the first. as far as it goes that's not inaccurate. a ponzi scheme is something where you take money from people today they may think they're investing and it's being given out to the back door to somebody else. >> reporter: you agree with governor perry. >> that is the structure of social security. there's no secret about that. >> reporter: daniels doesn't shy away from controversy. in indiana he's been called anti-union for restricting collective bargaining. he passed a law withdrawing funds for abortion providers and he angered immigration rights groups which fining employers who hire illegal immigrants. >> what matters is not winning the next election. it is acting while there's still time to save our republic. >> reporter: america, he says, has some tough choices to make.

he discusses our problems and offers some possible solutions in a new book "keeping the republic." i read this book and i was scared. did you mean it to scare people? >> yes, people ought to be scared. if we don't make changes we will ruin the american project. by that i mean the dream that has attracted millions to these shores. a person can start with nothing and rise to the top. >> reporter: he's worried that our staggering debt, if unchecked, could signal the beginning of america's decline. >> there is a long, clear history of nations rising to greatness in leadership and then falling. interestingly, i quote an historian who says it always starts with the money. first they spend themselves into a corner. borrow themselves into a corner, and the rest of the fall, including military defeat sometimes, flows from that. >> thanks for coming back.

>> reporter: daniels says we urgently need to balance our nation's books. >> good job. that's a good result. >> reporter: as he did in indiana. by taking big government out of the equation and letting free enterprise take over. >> i think the important part of life, the heart of american society is the private sector. government should be there to... not to dominate it and to dictate to it and make all the decisions but to do those things we have to do together to make private life flourish. >> the next time i see maybe single digit. >> reporter: sit in on a few meetings with him and his focus on the bottom line is hard to miss. >> we'll cut it in half. >> that's good. >> you've been working. >> reporter: whether he's tackling an environmental project, welfare reform, or child protection. >> that way you would be steadily raising the bar. >> reporter: for now he'll continue working on indiana's problems. as for what the future may hold, well, he won't be our next president. who knows what the next phone

call may bring. >> i always say that one day the phone rings and something interesting that seems useful is on the other end. >> reporter: to be vice president? >> that wasn't a call i was hoping for. so i don't know. >> reporter: but you wouldn't rule that out? >> you don't rule anything out i suppose. >> osgood: coming up picture perfect. >> good girl.

>> osgood: you've heard a dog is man's best friend and sam here is a good friend. but who might be a homeless dog's best friend? possibly the woman our steve hartman went to meet. >> reporter: teresa burg of dallas texas is a professional

pet photographer with a major league pet peeve. >> it could be so much more appealing. >> reporter: her issue? bad dog adoption photos. that's not the ideal pose. >> i would think not. >> reporter: shelter and rescues post these pictures to entice people to adopt but teresa says the effect is often just the opposite. thousands of dogs are euthanized every year for no other reason than bad marketing. >> i can't stand the thought of, you know, for want of a good picture that a dog goes homeless. >> reporter: that's why a few years ago teresa started working for homeless dogs pro- bono, if you will, volunteering to take their adoption photos. she worked almost exclusively with a group run by kathleen coleman. >> we were getting adoptions but it was just slow going. >> reporter: teresa retook all the pictures of all the dogs kathleen had posted online. brought them in focus and put them in pearls. got them out of jail and on to

the couch. and replaced the nick nolte mug shots with dog fancy cover shots. after the retakes, every one of these dogs got adopted in record time. today, adoptions at the rescue are up 100%. >> pictures make a difference. that dog looks like it could be my friend. >> reporter: this was liberty's picture. the day of a it was posted, three people called to adopt her. >> how are you? >> reporter: teresa is now determined to multiply her results by training volunteers from other rescues and shelters and by persuading other professional photographers to lend their cameras to the cause. >> if photographer just took in one rescue group, we could save so many dogs. we really could. >> reporter: she's talking tens of thousands of lives. picture that.

>> jack actually accused me of wishing one of my lovers would come back from the dead. >> osgood: will susan lucci's internet role... soap opera role get an internet reprieve. later minor league ball players with a real home base. different states, different rates. not with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service, if it fits it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. so shipping for the chess champ in charleston is the same as shipping for the football phenom in philly? yep. so i win! actually, i think you deserve this. no, i deserve this. wow, got one of those with a mailman on top? priority mail flat rate shipping starts at just $4.95, only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. even though i'm a great driver, and he's... not so much. well, for a driver like you, i would recommend our new snapshot discount. this little baby keeps track of your great driving habits,

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>> if you leave i'll never speak to you again. >> it's sunday morning on cbs. >> that, my dear, is precisely the idea. >> and here again is charles osgood. >> i am realistic. >> osgood: that is susan lucci, of course, playing erica kane in the long-running soap opera all my children. now after all these years "all my children" is going off the air. our mo rocca set off to pine valley for this sunday profile. >> come with me, mo. come to the stairway to paradise. zach is just back from a terrible fatal plane crash but here he is now. >> reporter: spend time with susan lucci on the set of "all my children" and you'll see

someone very much at home. >> this is erica's pent house apartment. yes, this is supposededly in pine valley although we have an almalgamated view of downton new york city. >> reporter: susan knows pine valley. >> pine valley isn't exactly the corner of hollywood and vine. >> reporter: the fictional locale of the abc soap opera which goes off the air this friday. her character has been living there a very long time. >> we're in year 41. i have to tell you like year 23 i was also pinching myself. this has been a really long run. >> i hate you slam. >> reporter: that's right. for more than four decades, susan lucci has played the same role. >> you don't know who i am? >> reporter: the indomitable, insatiable.... >> what are you doing in my bathroom? >> i was looking for you. >> here i am.

>> reporter: the incomparable erica kane. >> at last i have found the career for which i was born. >> it's been my whole adult life. it hasn't been a sacrifice for me to continue playing erica kane. i've loved this part. she's capable of saying or doing just about anything. >> i just want them to know everything there is to know about me, how i grew up, how i grew up lonely and misunderstood. i mean the rose among the weeds and everything. >> reporter: born to parents of swedish and italian descent, lucci was raised in garden city, long island. >> brownies and girl scouts and friends. ice skating on the pond. proms. school plays. it was all here. >> reporter: and right from the start. >> when i was about three i used to sing something from damned yankees called whatever lola wants lola gets.

>> reporter: and that meant. >> i knew i would grow up to play erica kane. >> reporter: you graduated from college in 1968. then you started pounding the pavement. >> yes. >> reporter: one casting director warned you and said you might be too.... >> i was told i was probably too ethnic looking and i probably wouldn't work on tv because they were mostly looking for blondes or redheads, blue eyes at least. >> reporter: yet the 24-year-old actress landed a part in a new soap opera "all my children." she made her debut at erica kane on january 5, 1970. >> erica, why don't you get off your high horse and come down here with the rest of us. >> i don't want to be down anywhere with the rest of you. i want to be special and i'm going to be. >> she was not the typical heroin, of course not. she was the bad girl in town. she was the naughty girl in town. a 15-year-old high school girl who was very head strong, was

collecting boys, mostly other girls' boy friends as trophies. she grew up and she became big girl in a bigger arena. >> don't you ever get tired of getting my leftovers? >> reporter: during the show's run, erica has been aed model. an actress. >> lights! >> how is that? >> reporter: and a mogul. >> that's where i found it enchanting. please, god, please,. >> reporter: and through it all, she has suffered. >> too much. please, just take it all back. take it all back. >> reporter: erica kane has been through so much. she has been kidnapped. she has survived an airplane crash. >> she has fought a grisly bear and won. >> you may not do this. do you understand me? you may not come near me. >> she staged that prison breakout while dress in a wedding gown and high heels.

>> no, i am not going to a clinic. >> she's been to betty ford. she has survived an avalanche wearing knee-high red leather stiletto boots and red gloves. that's how we knew it was erica surviving. we saw the red gloves. >> reporter: she's been to jail. >> several times, yes. >> solitary confinement. can you imagine? >> she has survived. >> i warn you, i have claws. >> reporter: yes, survived but not alone. always a bride. never a brides maid probably no tv actress has appeared in more wedding dresses than susan lucci. as erica, you've been married how many times? >> ten. >> reporter: ten? >> could be 11. it's definitely double dij dij is. >> reporter: your full name is. >> i think it's erica kane, martin brant, cuttery chandler roy, roy, montgomery montgomery merrick.

this is where it gets dicey. merrick montgomery. >> reporter: to be clear erica is not susan. erica collects men, chews them up and splits them out. you've been married how many times? >> one. >> reporter: susan met her husband of 42 years when she was waiting tables in a hometown restaurant. he was the chef. after their two children liza and andreas came along she persuaded susan to stay in garden city where they live to this day. >> i was so submiten with her beauty first of all. and then later on seeing what a nice person she was. it was... she was not only beautiful on the outside but beautiful on the inside, you know. >> so nice. i feel like i shouldn't be here when you're telling this. it's really nice. >> it's just true. >> reporter: susan's life may not have quite the melodrama of erica's except when it

comes to the saga of the emmys. first nominated in 1978, lucci attended ceremony after ceremony after ceremony. >> after the ninth time of not winning, i would go numb. >> reporter: before you actually won the emmy there was a lot of joking, a lot of lampooning about it. were you cool with that? >> i was cool with that. >> are you all right? are you okay? >> maybe we should get you a soda, susan. come on. follow me. >> she never won an emmy. >> susan, you're going to win one. besides it's just a statue. kind of a symbol of excellence. >> i mean, i heard incredible people stand up at awards ceremony and say i guess i'm the susan lucci of the oscars, the susan lucci of directors. yes, i was fine with it. i was absolutely fine with it. >> the streak is over. susan lucci ( cheers and applause ) >> reporter: on her 19th try,

the woman fans know as la lucci had her moment. >> i'm going back to that studio on monday and i'm going to play erica kane for all she's worth. thank you very much. >> reporter: she did just that. but after surviving so much for so long, erica kane found an obstacle she couldn't overcome. declining ratings. in april abc canceled "all my children." it will be replaced by a lifestyle show. >> there's nothing that feels like it's going to end. maybe the last week it's going to feel a little different but so far i can't.... >> reporter: but there's a cliff hanger. in july, a production company bought the rights to the show from abc and announced plans to produce new episodes for the internet. >> if the show ends up online, will you go with it? >> i don't know yet. i'm listening. i'm listening with open mind

and heart. >> reporter: yet with the show going off the air on friday, and no announcement from susan lucci, it appears that erica kane's days may be numbered. do you think that fans are going to need grief counseling? >> judging from what many fans are saying, maybe so. maybe we're all going to need a little grief counseling. wanna know the difference between a trader and an elite trader?

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she won't eat eggs without hot sauce. she has kind of funny looking toes. she's always touching my hair. and she does this dancing finger thing. [ male announcer ] with advanced technology from ge, now doctors can diagnose diseases like breast cancer on a cellular level. so that women, like kristy's mom, can get personalized treatment that's as unique as she is. [ kristy ] she's definitely not like other moms. yeah, my mom is pretty weird. ♪ >> osgood: this month's two republican debates averaged more than four million television viewers including contributor nancy giles. >> i've watched the two republican party debates. and something weird is going on in the audience. >> your state has executed 234 death row inmates more than any other governor the modern times. ( applause ) >> reporter: applause at the number of people executed in

texas? >> this whole idea that you have to prepare and take care of everybody. ( applause ) >> but ongman, are you saying that society should just let him die? >> no. >> yes! >> reporter: and how about these guys? applauding even before ron paul answered the question. now i haven't been to church in years. but i seem to remember the question of, am i my brother's keeper? and something about thou shalt not kill. so how is it that not one single candidate, some who claim their spirituality has been a guiding force in their politics-- how could they not challenge the applause and maybe suggest that their invited audience take a step back from the blood lust. i totally take it for granted that one of the founding principles of the united states is freedom to express an opinion. but having said that, regardless of party affiliation, i can't imagine applauding at the idea of death.

either mandated by lethal injection or from lack of medical insurance. as we've all heard, there have been numerous instances where inmates on death row have been ultimately proven innocent. in governor perry's own state 12 death row inmates had been exonerated since 1973. could they have missed more? you probably have heard that just this past week the u.s. supreme court decided to review the case of a texas death row inmate because during his sentencing hearing a psychologist testified that blacks are more likely to commit violence. and between the "let the uninsured die" crowd and presidential wannabee and physician ron paul, excuse me, doctor, but i'm not feeling a a lot of do no harm jazz. i can picture their comforting bedside manner. cancer. tough luck. get out of bed and come back for chemo when you can afford it. in any case we're gearing up

for another presidential campaign. the ideological line have been drawn. there are red states and blue states but there are a lot of other colors to this country. frankly i'm still wondering what the clearance process was for the audience in these debates. i just can't believe they represent the entire republican party. i sure hope some of those other folks can get seats to the next debate and at the g.o.p.'s table. and let their voices be heard. >> osgood: just ahead, rooting for the home team. low back pain.less chc imagine living your life with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is a non-narcotic treatment that's fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens,

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made from pure, delicious hershey's milk chocolate. new hershey's air delight. >> osgood: in baseball's minor leagues, the fans are closer to the players than in the majors. one town is a perfect case in point as bill geist now shows us. >> reporter: here in wappinger's falls, new york, it's a home

game for the hudson valley renegades and fans are cheering on their boys. their adopted sons of summer. >> come on, matt. >> reporter: jane and al stewart are rooting for matt, the catcher. >> come on, john. >> reporter: and john at second base. >> come on, mickey. >> reporter: barbara o'connor cheers on the pitcher, her mickey. you always hear about professional baseball players making millions of dollars. but the renegades, like all minor leaguers, are paid peanuts. they're not making a-rod's machiney. >> they're making food stamp type money. >> every two weeks you're talking about under $500 of spendable money. >> reporter: so the players live in the homes of 18 fans like jane and al stewart.

and quickly they become part of the family. three live with the stewarts this season. there's jonathan cosco who has been accepted into med school but chose to pursue his dream instead. there's matt rice, a promising catcher, who made the league's all star team. and jake partridge, a pitcher drafted out of high school. the stewarts have no children. but over 17 years these two retired high school teachers have parented scores of young players. here at their home in poughkeepsie and at their florida home during spring training. >> i think we're at 24 or 25 in florida. >> reporter: jane and al support them in every way real parents do. >> eggs, pancakes, omlettes? >> reporter: very devoted parents. you cook to order.

>> yeah, yeah, it's easier than, you know, one doesn't like... they all like cheese. one doesn't like ham. one likes something else. >> me and jake joke in the clubhouse, i wonder what ma is cooking for dinner. she offers to do our laundry for us. it's really like having a home away from home. >> what time are you leaving, babe. >> reporter: jane rouses them from their appropriately disheveled rooms to get them to the ballpark on time. >> how can i help you? >> turn it. turn it. >> reporter: when the games begin, jane and al are in the front row cheering. >> if i'm walking up on the plate i see them or hear them yelling for me. i think it's just great. you have that support. you know that you have some kind of form of family here rooting for you to succeed. >> reporter: you will succeed in making it to the big leagues although a surprising

number ofate stewart's guests have including josh hamilton all star third baseman evan longoria and all star pitcher ryan demps ter whose salary has soared from peanuts to $1.5 million this year with the chicago cubs. >> i used to sleep in the downstairs. they had a foldout kind of couch area that looked like a bedroom almost, you know. it was awesome. >> reporter: he credits the home atmosphere in part with his early success. >> definitely played a part in it all for sure. especially when you're so far away from home and you're so young, that's a big scary world it seems like. it's just nice having that little extra comfort. they probably sometimes don't even realize how much of an impact it has. >> reporter: the stewarts have housed as many as seven players at once. fewer since recruited more hosts like barbara o'connor. >> i told her i would do it until i had a bad experience. and even the guy crashesing

through the garage door did not make that a bad experience. i'm still doing it for 12 years. as jane would say, she's a lifer now. >> reporter: when called upon, barbara even drives her boys to their games. as would any good soccer mom. for their boys, jane and al serve dinner. >> first if line. >> reporter: at every home game. >> if you have a good game, con grat lates. if you have a bad name, she tells you to do better next time. >> reporter: like a real mother. >> really is. >> reporter: young athletes eat a lot. with great gusto. but not always their vegetables. jane makes sure they do. >> green beans. did you take any? you're lying to me. you're lying to me. there's no green beans on that plate. >> i have a question for you. >> reporter: how much are these surrogate parents compensated for all this? same as all parents. >> nothing. none of the house parents do.

getting to know these kids because they become such great human beings and such great adult citizens and husbands and wives and fathers. >> reporter: the stewarts have been to 20 players' weddings. their sons of summer are family forever. >> osgood: correspondent bill geist at bat. we'd like to take a moment now to say thank you and farewell to a member of our family, judy hole who is retiring after 49 years seven months and 19 days of great work here at cbs news. judy signed on as a secretary in early 1962, back when the secretary's handbook was forgetting coffee for the boss was a big part of the job. how times have changed. ♪ you're just too marvelous

♪ too marvelous for words >> osgood: in the late 1970s, judy hole was a television producer. >> live from new york, calendar. >> osgood: she worked in a number of cbs news broadcasts. then in 1995, she joined us here at sunday morning. where she has produced memorable stories on everything from the hoover dam to the career of gypsy rose lee. >> this is a special edition of sunday morning. >> reporter: she's also been in charge of our annual holiday food issue. from now on judy will be enjoying sunday mornings side by side with her husband 32 years sam whom she met right here at cbs news. ♪ in style some day >> osgood: the other day judy showed us this article from the "new york times" in 1970. pants band tempest at cbs reads the headline. a protest over cbs's refusal to let female employees wear

slacks. here she is in the photo as always looking great. we're going to miss you, judy. best of luck. now to bob schieffer in washington for a look at what's ahead on "face the nation." good morning, bob. >> schieffer: good morning, charles. bill clinton and dick cheney. no, it's not a national bipartisan unity ticket. they're our guests on "face the nation." >> osgood: thank you, bob, we will be watching definitely. next week here on sunday morning. mo rocca's no holes barred interview with roseanne barr. but my data is doubling. my servers are maxed out. i need to think about something else when i run. [ male announcer ] with efficient i.t. solutions from dell, doug can shift up to 50% of his company's technology spend from operating costs to innovation. so his company runs better, and so does doug. dell. the power to do more.

>> sunday morning's moment of nature is sponsored by... >> osgood: we leave you this sunday morning along the banks of the kazinga channel in uganda up close and personal with elephants and hippos.

>> osgood: i'm charles osgood. please join us again next sunday morning. until then, i'll see you on the radio. i have copd. if you have it, you know how hard it can be to breathe and what that feels like. copd includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. spiriva helps control my copd symptoms... by keeping my airways open a full 24 hours. plus, it reduces copd flare-ups. spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that does both. and it's steroid-free. spiriva does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. tell your doctor if you have kidney problems, glaucoma,

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>> schieffer: today's on face the nation, bill clinton and dick cheney. no